Read Online The King of Fear by Drew Chapman - Free Book Online Page B

But at you too. At his disciple, his wonder child. For getting too close to me. That’s a body blow for Alexis Truffant.”
    Garrett glanced quickly at Alexis. She sat frozen in her chair. He tapped on the glass frame of the photo. “How old is Kline now? Fifty-four? Fifty-five? When is mandatory retirement in the army? Sixty-two? He’s not going to make it. He’ll quit in a year, maybe less. Everyone else is smiling, drinking beer. He’s standing apart from the gang, staring in the other direction. Look at his face. He’s worn-out. Finished.”
    He turned back to face Alexis. “And when he goes, you’ll be left all alone. No mentor. No coattails to ride on. Just you and the old-boy bureaucracy of the intelligence services. You can work as hard as you want, but you won’t get anywhere, and you know it. That’s how a career fizzles out into nothing. And your career means everything to you. It’s your reason for living.”
    He let his words sink in. “You need me to be right. So you can fix it. So you can move on. And keep moving up.”
    She sat there, saying nothing, just looking at Garrett, her breathing slow and steady. Garrett could almost see the gears in her head grinding; she was processing what he had just said, trying to come to a decision. And she was not happy about it.
    â€œYou have to give me something specific,” she said, finally breaking the silence. “I can’t just go tell DIA brass that there’s an economic assassin entering the country without knowing who it is, what he or she would look like—and why they’re doing it in the first place.”
    Garrett nodded briefly, then strode toward her front door. “Done,” he said, and left the apartment.

F ALLS C HURCH C ITY , V IRGINIA , J UNE 15, 9:52 A.M.
    M itty booked them a room in a motel north of Alexandria. The Happy Inn was broken-down, with a few tourist rental cars in the parking lot, but Mitty guessed that most of the rooms were used by prostitutes and their johns. That seemed to suit Garrett fine. They didn’t need to use a credit card, and they registered as husband and wife, under fake names, like everyone else in the place. Mitty had fun with that part: DeAndre and Shirlee Horowitz, she told the uninterested clerk.
    The motel had Internet, but it was slow, and cost $19.95 per day extra, which Garrett bitched about, but paid for nonetheless. He was beginning to run out of cash.
    â€œIf we use my ATM card,” he said, “the FBI will be here in minutes.”
    She brewed some instant coffee, then walked across the street to get sandwiches from a Subway store. When she returned to the room, Garrett already had his computer sitting on his lap.
    â€œI want to build a profile,” he said. “A profile of the guy coming to the country.”
    â€œHow?” Mitty said. “You don’t know shit about him. In fact, you’re not even sure he really exists.”
    â€œLet’s start with the assumption that he does exist. Take it as a given. Maybe that’s crazy, but let’s run with it.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œSo we need to figure out what he would look like. Not physically, but hisbackground. What country he comes from, where he worked, went to school. All that kind of stuff.”
    â€œNot possible,” Mitty said. “I mean, seriously, Gare, how the fuck you going to do that?”
    â€œProbability.”
    Mitty stared at him, then lay on one of the twin beds and used the remote to flick on the television. “Remind me why we’re doing this again? I thought you quit Ascendant. I thought you hated those people.”
    â€œI’m doing it because someone is trying to frame me for murder. The sooner I catch them, the sooner I don’t have to sit around motel rooms. With you.”
    â€œLove you too. Kisses.”
    â€œWe’ll start with age, gender, country of origin.” Garrett typed.